Business leaders focus on diversity, inclusion in workplace as part of Detroit comeback

The Detroit Economic Club hosted the “Detroit ’67: Looking Back to Move Forward” meeting Monday at MotorCity Casino Hotel with a panel discussion including (from left) Henry Ford Health System President and CEO Wright Lassiter III; Tim Ryan, PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP senior partner and U.S. chairman; and W.K. Kellogg Foundation President and CEO LaJune Montgomery Tabron. Crain’s Detroit Business Editor and Publisher Ron Fournier moderated the discussion.

As Detroit reflects on the city's unrest 50 years ago, some business leaders are calling on companies and communities to focus on diversity, inclusion and opportunities to remedy the city's racial legacy to move forward.

The Detroit Economic Club hosted the "Detroit '67: Looking Back to Move Forward" meeting Monday at MotorCity Casino Hotel with a panel discussion. Tim Ryan, PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP senior partner and U.S. chairman; Henry Ford Health System President and CEO Wright Lassiter III and W. K. Kellogg Foundation President and CEO LaJune Montgomery Tabron participated in the discussion moderated by Crain's Detroit Business Editor andPublisher Ron Fournier.

Ryan urged companies to foster discussions on race to establish trust and understanding among their workforces to allow employees to better serve and help people reach their full potential. That includes understanding the perspectives of Detroit's current challenges, which Ryan said many residents see as problems, while many outsiders and newcomers see it as opportunity.

While racial discussions can be risky, the rewards can be significant, Ryan said. He reflected on the impact that the July 2016 Dallas sniper shooting, which left five police officers dead, had on PwC offices across the country.

"The silence in the office that following Friday was deafening," he said before describing how his firm's offices across the country broke off into discussion groups. "On July 21, we had a daylong discussion on race in the firm … We began to understand that words like 'riots' mean something. We began to understand that among our black professionals that many carry their business cards in their front pocket because if they get pulled over, they want to make sure they knew that they earned that car as opposed to they stole that car."

Montgomery Tabron stressed that Detroit's recent comeback cannot be a true comeback without including the residents who stuck it out through the hard times. Montgomery Tabron, who grew up on Detroit's east side in the 1960s, noted that many opportunities and resources left the city during white flight and the city's continued population decline.

"I think the most important thing that we can do is face the truth of how a system of racial hierarchy has really destroyed opportunities across this nation, and definitely in our city," she said.

Lassiter learned about the city's past after relocating from Oakland, Calif., to become the first black president and CEO of Henry Ford Health System in 2015 — a feat that the Alabama native did not realize right away. Then he learned more about the history of the institution and city.

Lassiter said he learned from a doctor, who spent six decades at the hospital, that decades ago African-Americans could only be treated in the hospital's "M" ward in the basement of the hospital.

"I didn't know that history coming in and I was somewhat taken aback," he said. "Now I understand some of the comments people made as they first met me why they thought it was so interesting and momentous that an African-American man is running an organization like ours."

Looking forward to 2067, Tabron said a key to building stronger communities is through building the city's small businesses, which make up 80 percent of the economy.

"It is amazing what small business does for a community. Small business is the heart and soul of community," she said. "And when we look at the city of Detroit, what we lost are the small businesses, those neighborhood businesses. They actually hire more local people than the large businesses."

To help boost the number of minority-owned businesses in the city, the Kellogg Foundation partnered with J. P. Morgan Chase & Co. to help tackle the fiscal barriers many businesses face with the Entrepreneurs of Color Fund.

"What we're doing at the Kellogg Foundation is spurring that kind of energy back into the community," Tabron said. "That will be the compass of how we are reaching the neighborhoods.